Brother of the More Famous Jack

I have read this book at least a dozen times. Despite the humor, the book deepens with each reading. Once you've enjoyed the characterizations and laughed at all the witticisms there are all the literary allusions to digest. Then there are the references to other parts of the book to map. Truly a gem. The best book Barbara Trapido has ever written. I am so glad that this book is back in print. I've given many copies of this book as gifts and previously I've had to scour used-book stores to find it. Buy it, you'll like it.

What a marvelous little novel. This is a complex and sophisticated story that feels much longer than its actual length of a couple hundred pages. The story of Katherine and her intimate involvement with a large bohemian family is touching, hilarious and at times down right raunchy. The author has a wonderful way with words, she says so much with her sparse prose. I would highly recommend seeking out this book, and I look forward to reading other work by this author.

This slender epic is by way of being the prequel to _The Travelling Hornplayer,_ which I unknowingly read first. This one centers on Katherine Browne and her affair with the entire Goldman family: Jake, the Jewish cockney philosophy professor and semi-radical Bohemian; Jane, his wife and supporter of his soul; Roger, the older son, his mother's favorite, and a neurotic math genius; and Jonathan, his father's favorite, all-round bloke and decent sort. Katherine, a very naive and very sweet young girl, first meets Jacob when he interviews her for a university fellowship and later the same afternoon falls under the sway of John Millet, a bisexual aesthete to whom she loses her virginity. John takes her to visit his old friends in the country, who turn out to be the Goldmans. She falls for the beautiful Roger, who turns out to be something of a ...; when he dumps her four years later during graduation week, she departs for Italy and doesn't return for ten years, having had and lost a baby. Then she rediscovers Jonathan. The book divides neatly into two parts, separated by the Italian interlude: Young-and-Vulnerable Katherine and Older-and-Sometimes-Wiser Katherine. The Goldmans have changed a lot during her decade away, but in the essentials they haven't really changed at all. This is a lovely book and it's amazing Trapido could cram so much story into only 218 pages. The scintilating dialogue makes me want to see and hear it on the stage. And the characters, as in _Hornplayer,_ are absolutely believeable.

And with that line, the heroine captures the interest and heart of her University advisor -- and the reader. Thus my most favorite book, ever, begins! In Katherine, Barbara Trapido created a beautiful, funny, neurotic character who is only ever capable of speaking the truth, even when it does her in. Terribly romantic, terribly hilarious, and occasionally so very sad that you weep into the pages...her phrasing so wise and eloquent and lovely in its complexity that you can only shake your head in wonder...GOD, I LOVE THIS BOOK!

A rollicking good read! Girl meets gay boy, meets bohemian family, meets boy, loves boy, is rejected by boy, goes to Italy, comes home to England, meets boy's younger brother (of the more famous Jack) and settles happily in an Irish stone cottage, with the blessings of all family members. A sweet story, littered with profanity and taboo-busting bad taste, very light but dealing with sad events, too, funny and sexy. A wonderful read, and, for the more discerning, some very sharp social observations.